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Friday, August 23, 2013

THE CIRCLE TOUR: Part 1 - The Accidental Museum

- 2 weeks ago we made a 913 mile trip around Lake Michigan, known as the Circle Tour. These are our trip logs. -

Part 1: The Accidental Museum

Leg: Milwaukee to Manitowoc

Route: WI-42

We had only just pushed off from Milwaukee a couple hours prior. We were still within the break in period, rustling to find our comfort zone between the tank and a week's worth of gear that was strapped to the tail of our bikes. I shifted and pushed in small increments to explore the boundary between comfort and Wisconsin's most disorganized yard sale. I hadn't found either yet. We buzzed past a break in the corn fields. My eye caught a glimpse of what appeared to be a bright blue restored Indian parked out front of a garage. The window read "Sorry, We're Closed." An off duty parking lot to stretch the legs without being bothered and a bit of eye candy to sweeten the deal. We pulled back around. Not a second after Kara killed the SR the garage door went up.

It's interesting how your surroundings can completely rewire your thought process over the years without you even noticing. Little by little, under the radar, it shaves and sculpts the way you function mentally. 5 years of brash Chicago meant as soon as that garage door cracked I was prepared to deal with a barrage of rhetorical questions phrased in a similar fashion to "Can't you read the sign?" Instead we were greeted with an experience that would embody all the interactions we would have with complete strangers over the next 8 days. It would also help me to ease my mind and reprogram. It turns out hundreds of miles of corn fields are the playground for metacognitive thought.

On the other side of the door was Daryl Wettenkamp. He runs an automotive glass repair shop in Manitowoc, WI. Daryl also collects mechanical things from the early 1900's and restores them. This includes cars, motorcycles, industrial machinery, pianos, signage, and parts and pieces of mechanical items with mysterious functions of a past life undefined. Daryl can also talk for an hour straight from one breath while exuding more passion then I even thought possible in human beings. He lives and works in the 2 story barn he converted into an auto repair shop and home. Daryl was the first and brightest milestone in our trip... and all we wanted to do was stretch our legs.